Bad fuel mileage!

S

Snomo292

New member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
3
Age
40
Location
Oshkosh,WI
I was out riding with my dad. I was on my 99 srx 700 and he was on my 02 viper. Every time we would stop for gas he was putting in a good gallon or more in to the viper then I was in the srx. I was under the assumption the viper would be better. both are stock any ideas? The viper runs great.
 
Snomo292 said:
I was out riding with my dad. I was on my 99 srx 700 and he was on my 02 viper. Every time we would stop for gas he was putting in a good gallon or more in to the viper then I was in the srx. I was under the assumption the viper would be better. both are stock any ideas? The viper runs great.
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Been there done that. Here is the deal with a Viper. It has the forced air induction and snow dust causes havoc with the carburation. Let me guess.....your dad was riding behind you? The Viper is totally fine when you are leading or staying way back of the next rider. If snow dust is present in front of a Viper you need to turn on the carb heaters. Otherwise the air jets getted plugged with snow or ice and it richens the low speed circuit and they start losing fuel mileage. Also another thing that can occur is belt dust can plug the air jets too. A good summer job when it's time to clean the carbs. Over a week ago I was running in northern WI. and I did not turn on my carb heat soon enough and I fouled my center plug. I put in new plugs but from that point on I was getting 60 miles to a tank and the fuel light would be on. So needless to say....depending how bad the air jets get plugged, the worse your mileage can get. I thawed my sled out recently and rode yesterday around home after the WI. trip and my mileage was back to normal.
 
yamabrute said:
Why not leave the heaters on all the time?
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Your mileage goes down a little with them on. Nothing like it does with the air jets plugged though. When I run around home I don't have this iissue so I don't run them. My old man only rides locally and he has never once had to turn them on. When I ride up north in the woods where the snow dust hangs is where I need the heaters. If it is a warmer day I usually don't either.
 
journeyman said:
Your mileage goes down a little with them on. Nothing like it does with the air jets plugged though. When I run around home I don't have this iissue so I don't run them. My old man only rides locally and he has never once had to turn them on. When I ride up north in the woods where the snow dust hangs is where I need the heaters. If it is a warmer day I usually don't either.
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What do you mean by air jets? Do you mean the air/fuel mixture screw? These only affect mixture at just off idle so I doubt they would affect fuel mileage much while driving. Also, the carb heater only warms the air slightly which would richen up the mixture but shouldn't make the sled harder on gas. I know the viper has more aggessive porting so it much just be naturally harder on gas. The SRX has a pretty efficient motor.
 
I was riding a lot harder then my dad. He was pretty far behind me the first weekend we rode and I doubt he really had any snow dust but it does make sense. We were up in eagle river this last weekend riding and he was behind about 9 guys all weekend but these guys were not riding very hard or throwing up much snow dust either. Was kinda boring. lol But thank you guys for the advice. I do have the carb heaters on all the time tho and they were on while he was riding.
 
My handle on the heated carb valve will not move. I tried to move it when the engine was warm & cold. Is there a way to lube it or clean it up inside.
 
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